Shopping cart corrals are devices that are extremely well known in the marketplace, in wide use in supermarket parking lots and in the prior art. With the growth of supermarket trading and shopping in the United States, also came the great growth of the use of voluminous shopping carts by shoppers to enable large quantities of products, goods and purchases to be conveniently carried from the shelves of the supermarket through the cashier of the supermarket to the car of the purchaser in the parking lot of the supermarket. In order to prevent blocking of the parking lot parking spaces by abandoned shopping carts, the typical shopping cart corrals were developed and are provided, spaced at intervals through the parking lot, of the supermarket or store.
In these corrals, the shopping carts are placed by the purchasers at the store and/or employees of the store, the shopping carts interengaging and interpenetrating one another for space saving reasons. Periodically store personnel retrieve the collections of shopping carts from the corrals and return them to the pickup places in the store where the shoppers take them.
Because of the construction of the shopping carts, which are almost universally the same and, as mentioned, longitudinally engage with one another as they are collected together, the typical shopping cart corral is made up of a typically "closed" (or closeable) end which is also typically but not necessarily taller than the opposite open (or openable) end noted. The closed end typically is an inverted U-member (configured metal pipe) which may or may not have a floor piece connecting the lower ends thereof. The cart receiving space in the corral is defined by a pair of parellel sets of vertically spaced apart, horizontal beams, spaced apart a distance somewhat greater than the width of the shopping carts. One end of each set of parallel beams or members is typically rigidly fixed or welded to the vertical legs of the "closed" end member. The other, spaced away ends of the paired, vertically spaced apart rods, arms or beams typically are connected to or form vertical legs closing the free or open ends of the beam sets. These typically shorter legs (compared to the height of the U inverted member of the other end) support the two sets of beams in parallel, spaced apart array. There may be a ground member or base member connecting the bottom ends of the short legs at the open end of the corral.
One or more bars may be provided across the closed end for the purpose of holding or stopping the carts therewithin. (Question: Is this true of any standard corrals or just us? ) These members typically would be parallel and would be horizontal and positioned at a height lower than the tops of the carts at the lowest end thereof. Such beams may be bolted or welded to the inverted U-member of the "closed" end. Alternatively, at the corral closed end, there may be provided a chain member which has the purpose of holding the carts in place. Optionally there may be provided a chain member at the open end so that the carts can be fed from the other direction. If there is a chain at one or both ends of the corral, the chain is typically removable at one or both ends.
Typically, the prior art shopping cart corrals, once such are installed in the parking lot of a given supermarket, are rigidly fixed and remain there. They may have to be repaired or re-welded if there is car impact damage, vandalism or the like. If the supermarket is sold or goes out of business there may be changes. If the parking lot is to be cleared, the corrals are merely torn down or torched apart. (Question: Is this true? ) In change of ownership, one type of shopping cart corral may be exchanged for another more preferred by the new owner.